HMS Diana by Sizzolo - Caldercraft - 1:64

[Thukydides]

2 hours ago, Sizzolo said:

Battens next to protect top row of copper plates…

Your batten is much wider than what I normally see (it is basically another plank on top). Normally people only use a thin strip. Did you find something in your research suggesting they should be wider?

Edited April 12 by Thukydides

[Sizzolo]

You could be right. I took the dimensions from a paper called “THE INTRODUCTION AND USE OF COPPER SHEATHING - A HISTORY” by Mark S t a n i f o r t h

 

“Three methods were used to finish off the coppering pattern about 1 foot above the waterline. One method was to have a row of copper plates which ran parallel to the waterline which overlapped the ends of curved rows of copper plates. The alternative methods were to replace the row of copper plates with a wooden batten 9-12" (23-30 cm) wide and a 1 1/2" ( 4 cm) thick or a roll of canvas nailed onto the hull (Zimmerman, 1978: 95- 9) “

 

However, the Zimmerman reference seems to be an article in an issue of the Nautical Research Journal by a model maker in 1978 and as I can’t find a hard or soft copy of it I don’t know what Zimmerman’s own references were. 
 

Do you have any references for narrower ones?

[Thukydides]

56 minutes ago, Sizzolo said:

Do you have any references for narrower ones?

Not really, th only thing I have is the contemporary model of bellona which shows a very narrow batton.

https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-66299

 

Apart from that it is just what I see most people doing. It is one of those things I never bothered to ask if it was done another way.

[Sizzolo]

Well I’ll let you know what I find out 😀. I’ve just bought a copy of the magazine from 1979 on eBay so the journey continues!

[Sizzolo]

On 4/12/2025 at 1:57 PM, Thukydides said:

What did you use for the lead, actual lead foil?

Your question made me question the aluminium foil and think of using lead instead.

 

I found the perfect stuff - self adhesive lead tape that golfers use for adding subtle weight to their clubs. It arrived today and I quickly swapped it out. I think it looks much better and was a joy to apply. 

[Sizzolo]

Back again! The break was primarily due to my fixation on knowing more about the batten that covers the top edge of the copper plates at waterline. My reference material pointed at an article in NRG Journal Volume 24 (1978!) by Walter J Zimmerman as a reference. I went on to eBay and not knowing the volume has 4 issues I got the wrong one. A few weeks later and after another eBay purchase arrived from America I finally have the article. Unfortunately the article doesn’t provide a reference as to how it assesses the batten width was between 9” and 12”.

Not all bad news though - I have a feeling the author may have taken an estimate of measurements from a model kept at Annapolis’ Naval Academy museum, HMS Minerva, which he does reference. I wasn’t aware of this model and given it’s of a ship of similar age and size and photos are available I’ll use that as my reference. My mind can rest easy that I’m not inventing things that may not have existed!

Edited May 25 by Sizzolo